Lots of fireworks on a magnificent day in the Alps. The race was clearly turned on its head with a crash taking out Green Jersey leader Marcel Kittel and Fabio Aru cracking on the slopes of the Galibier to fall off the podium completely.
The Points Classification had come down to a nine point difference between Kittel and Micheal Matthews after the Sunweb rider took the intermediate sprint on Stage 17. Unfortunately Kittel was injured early in the stage in a crash caused by pure inattentiveness in the peloton and was forced to abandon. Matthews looks like a lock for the jersey as his nearest competition is Andre Greipel 160 points in arrears.
The GC race was animated by Alberto Contador who went out on the attack early on the slopes of the Col de la Croix de Fer. El Pistolero briefly looked like the rider who had won two Tours and I was cheering for him to take the win today. Instead he cracked on the Galibier when fellow breakaway compatriot Primoz Rogelic attacked 5 kilometers from the summit. Rogelic would go on to take the stage win. Dan Martin put in several attacks from the main group containing Froome and the other favorites but couldn’t get one to stick. Bardet also tested the Maillot Jaune and was unsuccessful in getting a gap as well. What these attacks succeeded in doing is getting rid of second place rider Fabio Aru. At one point it looked as if Aru would crack and lose big time. To his credit he stayed within himself and limited the loss to 30 seconds. The big winner on the day was Rigoberto Uran who was able to outsprint Froome and Bardet for second and more importantly 6 bonus seconds. The current standings have Uran and Bardet equal on time 27 seconds behind Froome. Aru slips to 4th, 53 seconds back.
Stage 18 Brioncon-Izoard
The last chance for anyone to take time back from Froome is the summit finish on the Col d’Izoard. There is always a chance that one or more of the top 4 will fail spectacularly and lose several minutes but for our purposes we will assume that won’t happen. Rigoberto Uran and Romain Bardet need to attack Froome and end the day with a few seconds in the bank ahead of the time trial on Saturday. The final climb of the day is a beast with sections over 10% in the final kilometers. Bardet needs at least 90 seconds and Uran 30-45 seconds in the bank to have a chance to win the Tour. Uran is a much better time trial rider than Bardet although not an equal of Froome.
Who do you think makes the first move tomorrow? Will Uran attack or follow wheels and take his chances against Froome? Who will crack on the final climb?
Three Weeks in July 